The most common concern we hear from NYC founders: "How do we compete with Google, Goldman, and Two Sigma when we can't match their compensation?" It's a real constraint. FAANG base salaries run $200K-$350K+ for senior engineers; top quant firms pay $400K-$1M+. Most seed to Series B NYC startups are working with comp budgets that can't touch those numbers.
The answer is counterintuitive: you're not actually competing with those companies for most engineers. You're competing for a specific subset — engineers who have decided, for their own reasons, that what you offer is more valuable than what FAANG offers. Your job is to find them and make a compelling case.
The people who leave Goldman Engineering or Google NYC for a startup aren't doing it for more money — they're doing it for something FAANG can't provide. Understanding what that is determines your pitch.
Ownership and agency. At Goldman or Google, an engineer might own one component of one system serving one internal team. At a 20-person startup, they might own the entire architecture of a customer-facing product. For engineers who care about impact scope, this trade is compelling. Career acceleration. Making Staff-level decisions at a 500-person company takes years. Making those same decisions at a 15-person startup is possible in the first 6 months. Engineers who want to compress their learning curve choose startups. The specific technical problem. Some engineers are genuinely more excited about building a better insurance rating system or a real-time financial compliance engine than anything FAANG is offering. Domain motivation is real and underappreciated as a recruiting lever. Equity. This one is complicated and most companies get it wrong (more below).Most NYC startup equity pitches fail because they're vague. "We have great equity upside" is not a pitch — it's a placeholder. The engineers you're competing for have been burned by vague equity promises before, and they've read enough about preference stacks to be skeptical.
What works: specific scenario math.
"Your grant is X% (Y shares). At our last round valuation of $80M, that's worth $Z today on paper. If we reach $300M — which we think is achievable in 3-4 years based on [specific business metrics] — it's worth [amount]. If we get to $800M, it's worth [amount]. The preference structure means you'd start realizing this at [liquidation threshold]."
This is uncomfortable because it requires honesty about scenarios that aren't guaranteed. It works because it builds trust. Candidates who've done startup equity math appreciate the specificity. The ones who aren't interested would leave in 18 months anyway.
You don't need to match FAANG. You need to be close enough that equity upside closes the gap.
| Level | FAANG NYC Total | Competitive Startup Offer |
|---|---|---|
| Senior SWE | $280K-$430K | $215K-$265K base + equity |
| Staff SWE | $380K-$580K | $280K-$355K base + equity |
| Senior ML | $320K-$500K | $250K-$320K base + equity |
The startup offer works when: (1) the candidate genuinely values equity upside, (2) the equity math is credibly presented, and (3) the non-cash value proposition (ownership, problem, team) is real and specific.
Not every strong engineer is a good startup fit. The ones who close at startup compensation are:
We know which NYC engineers are at the inflection point — frustrated with large-company pace, looking for ownership, genuinely interested in startup technical problems. We source specifically for startup-fit candidates, not just technically-qualified ones. Start a NYC search →
Related: Software Engineer Salaries in New York City 2026 · How to Close More Engineering Offers at a StartupFor the latest engineering compensation benchmarks, levels.fyi and The Pragmatic Engineer are the most cited sources.
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